Runner Down

Prior to running the Steamtown Marathon, I was experiencing some pain in my heel. It was nothing major and the pain was alleviated by running. After the marathon, however, the pain was pretty much constant. I made a visit to my doctor who diagnosed plantar fasciitis and told me to take two to four months off running and do the stretches that can be found online. To maintain aerobic fitness, she suggested swimming and riding a stationary bike (swimming in a public pool grosses me out to no end, plus I don't have access to either a pool or a stationary bike).

So I gave it three weeks and tried a slow 6-mile run up Old Waterford Road. It felt good to run, except it was clear that my heel wasn't better. A friend recommended a chiropractor who specializes in sports injuries and practices applied kinesiology. A combination of foot strengthening exercises, ultrasound, and deep tissue massage seem to be helping, at least a little bit. The heel still hurts, but I'm walking much better. The goal is to start running again in January.

I don't like this enforced inactivity one little bit. And it comes at a dangerous time of the year...the Holidays. We celebrated two Thanksgivings, one with my family and one with Tom's. There are already two Christmas parties on the calendar and mostly likely one or two more will pop up. And then there's Christmas Eve dinner (I'm considering attempting Julia's Duck en Croute), Christmas dinner, and New Year's Eve dinner. Yikes! Dangerous times indeed.

And then there's the whole stress reduction thing that comes with running. I'm trying to increase the amount of yoga I'm doing. If I'm not running early in the morning, I should be practicing my yoga, right? And theoretically, the yoga will increase my flexibility, which should help my heel. We shall see.

Knitting Progress
With all this enforced inactivity, you'd think I'd be knitting up a storm. Ha! For some reason it isn't happening. There's so much that I haven't done around the house (the dust buffalo have evolved into dusty mammoths), that I feel guilty if I take the time in the middle of the day to sit and knit. And after dinner, I'm too tired to sit down and knit, especially during the week, given that I don't get home from work until after 8:00 most nights (thanks be to Tom for taking over the cooking duties and everything else during the week).

But there has been knitting. The baby blanket is six inches away from being completed and I've got until the weekend to finish it. The baby's mom is coming to town next week and I would like to give it to her then. Must give it to her then, because I'm terrible at mailing packages.

And there's been a lot of thinking about knitting. After the blanket is done, what shall I knit? One of the sweaters that I've been dreaming about (never mind that I've got more unfinished sweaters than I care to admit lying about)? How about a shawl? Or a scarf (I do have a garter stitch scarf on the needles; that's my totally brainless knitting) (except it isn't working out because I untied the knot in the yarn, which threw off patterning) (who would've thunk it?)? Maybe a pair of socks? (Oh wait...I have two pairs of socks on the needles) Or yoga socks (Barbara's studio is kind of chilly)? How about a wimple? Patternworks has a wimple pattern designed for Schaefer Andrea yarn (why is it that I always type "yearn" first?), that's 100% silk. I love hats, but look stupid in them. And they flatten curly hair. Maybe a wimple would be the perfect thing to keep off the winter chill!

Of course, if I were a good and thrifty knitter, I'd finish up the myriad of UFOs that are tucked away in various boxes and baskets and bags and knit from my stash instead of adding to it. Of course, she says, it doesn't count as stash if you knit it immediately. Right?

In parting, since I haven't posted any photos in a while, here is a picture of Bosco (in the back) and Emma in a rare moment of truce:



Actually, they're a lot better than they used to be. Bosco has stopped trying to exert his dominance (for the most part) and Emma will actually initiate playing with him. She still hisses at him and swats him for no reason other than she walked by him and he looked at her (but isn't that what big sisters are supposed to do?). Bosco still attacks her, but usually it's in the early morning to keep her off the bed. And then he only feints an attack (which shakes the entire bed)(he's a big boy).

Well, that's it for now. Time to get some knitting in!